BEIJING (AP) - China is changing its constitution to protect private property rights for the first time since the 1949 communist revolution - a key step in making capitalism its economy's driving force.

A constitutional amendment endorsed by the Communist Party went before legislators on Monday and their approval seemed certain.

Party leaders who control the legislature already say private property is essential to advancing economic reforms that have let millions of Chinese lift themselves out of poverty.

Party leaders also sent the National People's Congress a proposed amendment to enshrine in the constitution the theories of former leader Jiang Zemin, who invited capitalists to join the party, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

This is a key step in private Chinese companies becoming the powerhouse of the 21st century.

It also begs one question, if the US and China agree on private property rights, then when will private property rights be established in space, such as on the moon?

Actually, it now seems that Russa is the clear leader as far as space goes, for the time being. NASA is grounded until late 2004, and even then will have a hard time returning the shuttle to popularity. China looked good for a while, but they've been quiet ever since Shenzhou 5, I haven't heard anything on a followup, probe, or moon base concept. JAXA is a mess, they lost something like half of their satelites to faulty launchers or that giant solar flare, and Nozomi, their Mars probe, turned from the underdog fell-good story of interplanetary robots to a dismal failure in one week. Even the ESA seems to have nothing more in stor than SMART-1 and Mars Express, no plans for an indiginous human flight perogram any time soon. Meanwhile, Russia seems to be the only clear winner. They are the only country currently launching their own people, NASA and the ESA is being piggybacked to orbit on them, and they even launched Mars Express for them!

Now, Russa is a long way away from economic stability. They still have a ways to go and it will be at least 20 years before they're back to normal. However, if they maintain the way they're going right now, they could stand to be the undisputed dominator of the government space market in the near future. Of course, the privat e market is another matter all together.

_________________"Yes, that series of words I just said made perfect sense!"
-Professor Hubert Farnsworth